I was at the Olympic marketing event yesterday and one of the staffers was backing up a 335i with the sport package. She was unbelted.

To see where she was going, she opened the driver's door. The car instantly went into park and made that gnashing sound expensive German cars make when several $1000 parts are stressed beyond their limits.

I was at the Olympic marketing event yesterday and one of the staffers was backing up a 335i with the sport package. She was unbelted.

To see where she was going, she opened the driver's door. The car instantly went into park and made that gnashing sound expensive German cars make when several $1000 parts are stressed beyond their limits.

Just fyi...

Yeah. Someone reported this happening to them. Supposed to be a safety feature at the expense of the transmission. *shrug

Maybe post it on YouTube so we can see the guts spilled out on the lot.

Lemme tell ya, this sounded like 200 metal parts missing an interlock, it scared the driver and stopped everyone within 20 feet of the car.

Upon more research, I read that this "put in P feature" only occurs when the door is ajar and no seat belt is on. This happens in D and R between 1-3 mph. Any faster and it will not do it. I haven't verified any of this btw.

Because there is no way to do it in a MT, also in a MT you cannot leave the car running in gear it will just stall when you drop the clutch. You could still "park" it in neutral on a slope and forget the parking break though.

Willing to believe it's designed in as safety feature to prevent the car from rolling down unattended until 3mph, but I'm not going to test it. I hope to rely on a flawless software. Similar to that, anybody tried already pushing the "P" button on top of the shifter while driving ? (Didn't try this myself and not asking anybody, just curious if somebody by mistake pushed the button). Normally the "P" button should be disabled (software) while driving. (Imaging what happens if badly programmed...)

Willing to believe it's designed in as safety feature to prevent the car from rolling down unattended until 3mph, but I'm not going to test it. I hope to rely on a flawless software. Similar to that, anybody tried already pushing the "P" button on top of the shifter while driving ? (Didn't try this myself and not asking anybody, just curious if somebody by mistake pushed the button). Normally the "P" button should be disabled (software) while driving. (Imaging what happens if badly programmed...)

I've tried it. Nothing mechanical happens. You just get an error notice on iDrive telling you what a dumbarse you are.